


Nyctophobia

by pterawaters



Series: Mr. Sandman [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Bisexuality, Canon-Typical Violence, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Homophobia, Hurt/Comfort, Insomnia, Multi, Nightmares, Polyamory, Post-Season/Series 01, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-03 21:23:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21186206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pterawaters/pseuds/pterawaters
Summary: After fighting an actual monster, Steve has an unusual amount of trouble sleeping. Jonathan never slept much before Will went missing. Now he barely does at all, unable to shake the moment he was a hair's breadth from being eaten. Nancy has the same sort of problem. Nightmares. Survivor's guilt. It's difficult to move on. When the desperation becomes too much, they find they sleep better together as a group. It's just that. Sleeping. Except time moves forward, and the more time you spend with a person, the more they become yours.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my first stranger things fic! Here are a few notes to get started.
> 
> The underage tag is used here due to explicit content between 16-year-olds, which occurs in chapter 3. There is also slight accidental non-consensual sexual contact in chapter 3. It's very, very tame but it's there, so please skip that if you need to.
> 
> This series has four complete stories and a fifth I'm currently working on. I'll try to post on Saturdays and Wednesdays until I run out of complete chapters.
> 
> The biggest thanks to several beta readers/discussion partners/cheerleaders: magdalyna, saltysantiago, tresa_cho, and ucanhavemysoup! You guys are awesome!
> 
> Artwork is by me.

The first nightmare happened when Steve nodded off at the hospital, waiting for Will Byers to wake up. He couldn't see much and nothing made sense, but the sounds were terrifying and his hands felt numb from the reverberation of the baseball bat impacting … whatever that was.

He woke up with a start, the room empty except for Nancy's parents and the Chief. When Mrs. Wheeler caught his eye, she must have recognized his confusion, because she said, "He woke up."

A full five seconds later, Steve realized she was talking about Will Byers. “Oh! Good!” Awkwardly, he settled back in his chair, unsure where to be, or where he was wanted.

It occurred to Steve that maybe he should head home. He had his car here, after all. It wasn't even like he'd have to call for a ride. Will had woken up. Nancy had her family here. Steve would see her in a day or two. That's what would be appropriate, right? That's what the voice in his head told him, the one that sounded like his mom. 

But then he closed his eyes.

Something like that shouldn't exist.

It shouldn't, but it did.

Steve's hands shook, no longer numb. He balled them into fists and pressed them against his thighs. He only realized that he was holding his breath when the room started to swim. He tried to breathe, to let the burning feeling in his lungs go, but it just felt stoppered up in there, choking him. Killing him.

And then Nancy walked into the room.

The stopped-up air left Steve in a rush and the fresh breath felt like salvation. Mike and the boys followed her into the room, tired smiles on their faces. Jonathan followed, and Steve was struck by the urge to stand up and hug the guy. Steve didn't know if he wanted the gesture to be an apology for his asshole behavior (as he'd been intending earlier in the evening), or a thank you for helping Nancy devise the trap that had scared off … whatever that was.

Either way, Steve held himself back. He followed the group as they ambled out of the building. He gave Nancy one last hug and then stood there in the doorway of the hospital, looking out at the dark parking lot. God, his car felt so far away.

The footsteps behind him drew Steve's attention, and when he turned he saw Jonathan heading toward him. Nodding, Steve said, "Hey."

"Hey," Jonathan said, meeting Steve's eyes for a weird moment before looking down again. He took his keys out of his pocket. "You need a ride?"

Startled, Steve stuttered, "W-what?"

"A ride home," Jonathan said, shaking his head. “Nevermind.”

“N-no!” Steve caught Jonathan’s sleeve before he could turn away. “Sorry! I mean, no thanks. My car’s…” He gestured toward the lot. “And I mean, shouldn’t you be…?” He gestured back toward the hospital.

“I’m heading home for a minute,” Jonathan said, and seemed to surprise himself along with Steve when he kept speaking. “My mom could use some fresh clothes, things.”

“You’re going back _there_?” Steve asked, only realizing in that moment that he had subconsciously made a promise to himself that he would never, ever go back to the Byers' house. Except, when he saw the frown forming on Jonathan’s he realized that of course Jonathan had to go back there. At least in the immediate future. That’s where all his stuff was, and his mom didn’t have enough money to just … buy new stuff. “Alone, I mean. You’re going back there _alone_?”

Still frowning, but maybe not as deeply, Jonathan sighed and rubbed his forehead with one hand. “What else am I supposed to do?”

“I’ll come with,” Steve offered, before he’d really thought it through. “You know, just in case.”

For a second, Jonathan looked like he was going to refuse. Like he was going to be tough and stoic, even though they both knew he’d been about four inches from that monster biting his face off when Steve had come back to help. Then he nodded. “Yeah, okay. That would be … good.” He looked away and kind of put his chin to his chest. “Thanks.”

Steve looked out at the inky black night and sighed. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.”

It was only as they pulled onto Jonathan’s street that he asked, “Why are you doing this, Steve?”

Steve didn’t know how to respond for so long it felt like an eternity. He knew there was a reason, and equally knew this reason was something he didn’t want to admit, even to himself. It hovered at the edge of his mind, having to be pushed away constantly because acknowledging it felt almost as terrifying as looking into the non-face of the monster he’d fought. 

Instead, Steve told Jonathan, “I realized what a stupid asshole I was being. I’m trying to make up for it, I guess.” When Jonathan stared at him a little too intently, Steve felt his cheeks go hot. He snapped, “_What_?”

“Nothing,” Jonathan replied, but his chin was proudly up and he didn’t sound cowed in the least. 

_Shit._

Steve pulled up to the house, in almost the exact place as he'd stopped earlier that night. It felt like he'd parked here two weeks ago, instead of just a few hours ago. He cut the engine and looked at the house. It was bright with all the lights they'd left on when Nancy decided they had to head toward the middle school to check on her brother. 

The police vehicles and ambulances at the school hadn’t been much of a surprise at that point. Steve somehow had been expecting to see them earlier. 

But now they were back at Jonathan’s house and all the lights in the house were on. The surrounding forest was as dark as it ever had been. A branch moved at the edge of the house and Steve flinched. His heart felt like it was in his ears and his eyes dried out as he stared at the spot without blinking. His breath came in shallow gasps. 

“What?” Jonathan whispered, shifting closer to Steve, like he was trying to follow Steve’s line of sight. 

The branch moved again, but this time Steve realized the whole tree was moving a little bit. Actually, all the trees were moving a little. He let out his breath in a rush, sighing, “Jesus Christ, it’s just the wind.”

“What, really?” Jonathan asked softly, and there was enough light from the house to see his expression. He looked at Steve like he had extra heads, or maybe a ton of teeth where his face should be. Like he’d just found out it was possible for Steve Harrington to be scared of the fucking wind.

“Shut up,” Steve snapped, giving Jonathan his best glare. “Let’s go do this.”

Jonathan nodded. He put his hand on the car door handle. 

He didn’t open it. 

“Count of three?” Steve asked, putting his hand on his own handle. 

“Yeah.” Jonathan looked at Steve. “One…”

Nodding, Steve counted with him. “Two… Three!”

Steve got his door open. He got his feet out of the car. He let his feet follow Jonathan toward the house. When he saw the bat he'd used earlier, lying on the lawn, the nails glinting in his car's headlights, he conceded to his fear and picked it up. 

Jonathan stopped at the door, his hand on the knob. When he looked back at Steve, he jumped a little. Pointing to the bat, Jonathan asked, "What are you doing with _that_?"

Steve shrugged, but he didn't lower the bat. "Just in case."

Jonathan nodded and opened the door. 

The inside of the house looked more like a war zone than the outside, but none of the lights flickered. Nothing beyond the walls growled. Nothing besides Jonathan moved. 

He was in and out within two minutes and the speed confused Steve until he got a look at Jonathan’s face. He looked nearly as terrified as Steve felt, with his jaw a little too tight and his eyes a little too wide. As Jonathan headed for the door, Steve had a thought and stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Get yourself a change of clothes too, huh?"

Looking down at himself, Jonathan frowned, his eyes fiery as he looked up, spoiling for a fight.

"No, I mean–" Steve sighed with frustration, holding up a hand to show he wasn't trying to insult anyone. "I mean, you might not want to come back. For awhile, I mean. At least not while your brother is in the hospital, right?"

With a slow nod, Jonathan said, "Okay. That makes some sort of sense."

"Been known to happen." Steve smiled, and wonder of wonders, he got a smile back in return. Maybe he really was starting to make up for his bad behavior. One incident down, several hundred to go, probably.

Jesus, after tonight all of that high school bullshit just seemed so stupid and inconsequential. He couldn't believe he'd been so deep into his own ego when _this_ was happening.

Whatever _this_ was.

Monsters.

Five minutes later, Jonathan had two bags over his shoulders and was heading for the door. Steve followed. He stopped in the doorway, wondering why the sky was starting to get lighter. Was something on fire? What if this wasn't over?

A few feet away, Jonathan stopped. He stepped backward until he was shoulder-to-shoulder with Steve. "Did you see something?"

"The sun is coming up," Steve said dumbly as it occurred to him. 

"Oh, yeah."

Shaking out of his stupor, Steve apologized. "Sorry. Seems weird that it would still do that."

"What?" Jonathan asked. "Rise in the morning?"

Now he really felt dumb. "Nevermind."

Jonathan stood next to Steve for a long silent moment. Then he murmured, “No, yeah. I get it.”

“Yeah.” Steve tore himself away from the sight of the sun rising and headed for the car. He had the door open and was about to get in when he realized he still had the bat in his hand. Putting it in the trunk seemed like it would be too far away, so he put it in the back, on the floor. 

Jonathan put his bags on the backseat, then took shotgun, looking at Steve expectantly through his bangs. 

“Doesn’t the hair in your eyes bother you?” Steve asked, unable to keep his mouth from running off before his brain could catch up. 

A pained look in the furrow of his brow, Jonathan asked, “Can we go now?”

Steve nodded, because like hell would he argue over getting out of this place as soon as possible. “We can go.”

The ride back to the hospital was silent. By the time Steve finished dropping Jonathan off with a lazy salute, dawn had really started to break. Gone were the oil-dark shadows between the trees. 

Steve could see everything, and he vowed in that moment never to take the sun for granted again. 

~*~

After leaving the hospital, Nancy took a shower and got into bed. Normally she would have turned out the light. Tonight was not normal. Her finger ached from pulling the heavy trigger of the gun. Her knee felt slightly twisted and there was a scrape on her elbow. 

Mostly it was her mind that wasn’t ready to turn off. They had fought the monster. Maybe they hadn’t killed it, but they’d fought it and scared it away. According to Mike, Eleven had killed it. Tore it into pieces and destroyed herself in the process. 

Nancy couldn’t shake the feeling that Mike was wrong. What if it wasn’t dead, but merely hiding in the Upside Down? What if there were _more_ of them? 

Why had Will Byers survived, when Barb hadn’t?

Nancy cried, shaking alone in her bed with the lights on. When she grew exhausted and closed her eyes, she heard the monster’s screams and Jonathan’s screams and the deafening blast of her gun. 

The sounds shot her to sitting upright, alone in her bed and exhausted, but heart hammering so fast it hurt. 

Nancy curled in on herself and waited until she heard other people in the house start to stir. Her dad was getting ready for work, despite the fact that it was Sunday. Holly ran around everywhere as she goaded Mom into feeding her breakfast. She didn’t hear Mike yet. 

Nancy pulled her aching body out of bed and showered again, only five hours after the last time. The warm water didn’t help. She couldn’t bear closing her eyes long enough to wash her face. Her hair was taken care of by pulling it wet up into a bun and she put on the closest clothes she could find. 

Breakfast wasn’t going to happen, but Nancy said hello to her mother and drank a glass of juice to make her happy. It felt like acid in her throat. She begged off, saying she was going to ride her bike around town to clear her head and promising to be back before dark. 

The first place Nancy went was the Byers’ house, only to find that Chief Hopper was there with some boards, some nails, and an electric saw. She couldn’t imagine he’d gotten much sleep, if any, either. He had dark circles under his eyes and a cigarette hanging from his lips. When he looked up and saw Nancy, he said, “They’re all still at the hospital. Settled in for the long haul, I think.”

“Thanks,” she called back, biting her tongue on the urge to ask if he was okay. Of course he wasn’t okay. None of them were. 

She headed toward Steve’s house next. The house looked quiet and empty, but Nancy rang the doorbell anyway. Steve’s mom answered, completely dressed and made up for the day. “Nancy! What a surprise to see you… Especially this early. On a Sunday!”

It occurred to Nancy that Mrs. Harrington likely had no idea what was going on, or what had happened. “They found Will Byers,” she blurted out, it being the first excuse for seeing Steve she had on the top of her tongue. 

“Oh, the missing child! How wonder– Alive, I presume?” Her eyes widened, like she was scared she’d made the wrong assumption. 

Nancy nodded.

Mrs. Harrington sighed and smiled. “Oh, well that is good news. Are you here to tell Steve? I doubt he’s–”

“Mom,” said Steve’s voice from inside the house. 

Mrs. Harrington moved aside, and gasped when she saw Steve’s appearance. “Steven! What happened to you?”

While his cuts were cleaned up and beginning to heal, the left side of Steve’s face was mostly purple with bruising. Steve opened his mouth, likely to tell her some version of the truth. Nancy panicked and said the first thing that came to mind. 

“It’s my fault,” she said, trying not to react to the wide-eyed look Steve gave her. “I…climbed up this one tree and he followed. Then, Steve slipped.”

Mrs. Harrington turned toward her son, likely wanting confirmation of Nancy’s insane excuse. Fortunately, Steve caught on quick. “Yeah! Yeah. I, uh, hit a few branches on the way down. It looks worse than it is.”

With a half-hearted chuckle and a roll of her eyes, Mrs. Harrington said, “Oh dear. It would be just like my son to all but break his neck over a girl!” She pulled Steve close and placed a small kiss on his cheek. After smiling at Steve, she smiled again at Nancy. “I’ll leave you to it.”

As Mrs. Harrington left, Nancy made herself look at Steve. She looked at him and he looked back at her and everything felt stuck in a way she hated. Eventually she got a few words out. “Can we go somewhere to talk?”

“Yeah,” Steve said, gesturing Nancy into the house and closing the door behind her. He led the way up the stairs and to his room, closing that door behind her too. “How are you doing?” he asked, waiting for her to sit down on the bed before he joined her. 

“I didn’t sleep,” she admitted, crossing her legs and curling in on herself a little. “I just couldn’t stop–“

“Picturing it, yeah,” Steve interrupted, looking down at his hands. “I didn’t sleep either.”

Without really thinking too much about it, Nancy threw herself into Steve’s arms. She felt weak doing it, and stupid. She never would have even known about the monster if she hadn’t gone looking for Barb. She and Johnathan baited it. On purpose. 

She’d brought all of this on herself, and all she wanted to do was curl up with someone who understood. All she wanted to do was be weak. Just for a minute. 

Steve caught her. He held her and ran his hand through her hair. He didn’t say anything, which was worrying, but after going through everything they went through Nancy supposed it was as good a reaction as any. 

Eventually, Nancy had too many thoughts in her head and some of them had to come out as words. “I’m sorry I threatened you with that gun.”

“You were _truly_ terrifying,” he said with a short chuckle that made Nancy smile. 

It also made her add, “And I’m sorry I did anything to make you think I was cheating on you. I wasn’t, you know. Jonathan was helping me look for Barb.”

“I know,” he whispered. Clearing his throat, Steve added, “I’m sorry I was such a jerk. Barbara was missing, and all I cared about was whether you were getting too close to Jonathan Byers.”

Nancy shook her head. “You were so stupid. I can’t believe you got into a fight over me.” She sat up a little, looking Steve in the eye. “Thank you for the apology, but it’s not just me, Steve. What you said to Jonathan…”

“I apologized to him,” Steve said, cupping Nancy’s arms in his hands. It was a gentle touch, not possessive, but definitely wanting. He wanted her there. 

It made Nancy wonder what exactly Steve thought counted as an apology. “When?”

“Last night,” Steve told her, shuffling closer, just an inch or two. “After you left. I drove him by his place. You know, to get some things.”

It took Nancy a good few seconds to process this information. It didn’t read as a lie, but how could it be true? Why would Steve lie about something that could be easily disproved? In what world would he voluntarily spend time with Jonathan Byers? Much less do him favors like drive him around?

“That was very...kind of you,” she said, watching Steve’s face.

He shrugged. “I just figured…” He trailed off and sighed, looking away like he was trying to find the words. “I figured it wouldn’t be a good idea to go back there alone.”

She nodded, seeing the logic in his thinking. “Mike said El got it… and yet…” She shook her head, chuckling at herself. “I’m not sure I ever want to go anywhere alone anymore.”

“Yeah,” Steve muttered, pulling Nancy close when she allowed it. “I know what you mean.” He pressed a kiss to Nancy’s hair. 

They sat together quietly for a long few moments, and Nancy let her heavy eyelids close. She was close to sleep, almost there, when Steve said, “I wonder if Jonathan feels like that too.”

“He’s got Will to be with,” Nancy said. “And his mom.”

Nancy thought about her mom and dad, and about the story they’d been told. El had been a Russian spy. Some kid other than Will Byers had drowned in the quarry. Nancy hadn’t fought a monster from another dimension – and lived. “My parents couldn’t possibly understand,” she realized out loud. “What we’ve been through…”

“Mine have no idea,” Steve insisted. “Neither one of them even saw me last night.” He snorted. “I left a note.”

“I didn’t even tell my mom I was going to be out,” Nancy realized. Suddenly she was surprised no one had objected to her leaving the house this morning. She supposed that after everything that had happened, they were more focused on Mike and his “Russian spy” friend who had died. Poor Mike. Poor Eleven. Nancy had only known her for a few hours, but she’d tried so hard to find Barb. She’d cried over Barb, despite not knowing her. 

“Barb is gone,” Nancy whispered. “She’s gone.”

Steve held Nancy tightly, kissing her hair again. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t nicer to her. If you liked her, she must have been pretty great.”

Hot tears flowed over the edges of Nancy’s eyes, rolled down her cheeks, and landed on Steve’s shirt. “Yeah, she was.”

Steve shifted them so they were laying down, Nancy’s face buried against his chest. He rubbed her back as she cried, and Nancy felt herself losing the fight to stay awake. 

Being awake hurt. It meant aches and pains and loss. It meant realizing every five seconds that Barb was _gone_. She wasn’t coming back. She wouldn’t be at her locker on Monday morning. She’d never laugh at Nancy’s jokes, or put weird styles into her hair, or play stupid paper games during study hall. She’d never get to do any of that, and it was all Nancy’s fault. 

Then Nancy found herself walking through the woods, gun in hand, looking for someone. Looking for Jonathan. He was missing. Nancy had to find him! She ran, the leaves crunching under her feet. If she could just…

There! Johnathan was there! He lay flat on his back in the leaves, the monster crouched over him. 

“No!” Nancy cried, trying to bring up her gun to shoot it. Her arms were too heavy! They wouldn’t move! Jonathan was going to be eaten! Just like–

Nancy woke up screaming, tears leaking from her eyes. It took her a moment to realize that it was Steve’s arms around her, trying to hold her still, and not the monster finally getting her. 

“Shhh,” he murmured in her ear. “Shh. It’s okay. You’re safe.”

“Sorry,” she said, laying still for a moment. When he let her go, she covered her face with her hands. A few sobs escaped before she could control herself. Steve rubbed her arm and kissed her shoulder. 

Nancy turned to face him, reaching up to touch his chin, just under the split in his lip. “Why are you being so nice to me? Why are you taking care of me?”

Steve made an affronted noise in his throat, but he smiled. “I’m very caring, I’ll have you know.”

Nancy laughed, but she buried her head in Steve’s chest just the same. “What if Tommy H. saw you like this?”

“Tommy can go fuck himself.” The venom in Steve’s voice impressed Nancy. As far as she knew, Steve had been best friends with Tommy forever. “He has no idea what he’s talking about.”

Nancy closed her eyes, but the scene from her nightmare came back to her in full force. Jonathan laid on the ground, the monster over him. Nancy’s heart jumped up into her throat and her whole body tensed up. 

Steve must have felt it, because he asked, “What?”

God, she hated to ask this, but she felt like she had to. “Will you drive me to the hospital? I just… I keep seeing…” The words wouldn’t come, and she felt too helpless and too restless. Rolling out of bed, Nancy stood up. She brushed a few stray hairs back out of her face and just spit it out. “I have to know that he’s okay. He’s my friend, Steve. I care about him.”

“Hey, no,” Steve said, standing up and grasping Nancy’s hands in his. “We can go. We should go. I mean…” He rubbed one hand back through his hair. “I’ve heard hospital food sucks, so we could…”

Catching on to Steve’s suggestion, Nancy brought her hands together. “Oh! That’s perfect!” 

Steve smiled and Nancy was reminded why she liked him so much in the first place. It made the tight feeling in her chest ease up, just a little bit—just enough to notice. 

~*~

Pure exhaustion helped Jonathan fall asleep sitting up in the chair next to Will’s hospital bed. There was a cot sort of thing that his mother had collapsed into, holding one of Will’s school notebooks to her chest. 

Will was asleep, too. His doctors weren’t too concerned, explaining that his body needed rest to heal. So Jonathan didn’t exactly set out to fall asleep sitting up. He’d just allowed himself a moment to breathe and relax, and it happened. 

The screaming caught his attention. He got up out of bed and scrambled into the hallway. That _thing_ had Will by the ankle. It dragged him down the hallway and toward the front door. Will _screamed_ and reached for Jonathan, but Jonathan couldn’t keep up. He couldn’t run fast enough to reach Will. 

He passed Nancy and Steve lying on the ground, and he knew that they were dead. They’d been eaten by the monster. Will was next. 

Jonathan woke with a start, clutching the arms of his chair. Will was right in front of him, still asleep in his hospital bed. Standing up, Jonathan could see his mom still asleep as well. 

A soft knock at the doorway drew Jonathan’s attention, so he went and opened it carefully, hoping to make sure the rest of his family got the rest they needed. On the other side of the door stood Nancy… and Steve. Alive.

Together. 

Oh, great. 

Without even saying hello, Nancy shoved herself into Jonathan’s space and wrapped her arms around him. Surprised, Jonathan looked at Steve to make sure this was okay. To make sure Steve wasn’t going to get mad. He’d been cool a few hours previous, but that was then and this was now. And Nancy was hugging him. 

Steve put a hand on Jonathan’s shoulder and squeezed. 

Okay. Still being alright, then. 

Jonathan took a chance and hugged Nancy back. “What’s going on?” he asked. 

“I had the worst dream,” Nancy said against Jonathan’s shoulder. “The monster got you.”

Steve held up several paper bags. “We brought you food.”

Jonathan’s stomach rumbled at the smell wafting from them. The uptick of Steve’s smile told Jonathan that Steve had definitely heard his stomach betray him. Jonathan extricated himself from Nancy's grip and took the bags from Steve, saying, "Thank you. Really. I mean–" His cheeks burned with shame at his awkward inability to find the right words. “This is … nice.”

“Yeah, well,” Steve said, pushing his hands into his back pockets. “I’ve got to make up for being an asshole somehow.”

The fact that Steve Harrington had any sense of conscience or any idea what penance might be surprised Jonathan. The fact that Nancy liked Steve had always been an unfathomable mystery, until now. This guy was hiding behind the prick facade he put on for the rest of the school. 

_This_ guy was okay. 

“Thank you.”

“How’s Will doing?” Nancy asked, peeking around Jonathan and into the room. 

Amused at Nancy’s ever-present need to know what was happening, Jonathan told them, “He’s doing alright. They’re going to keep him for a few days to make sure he’s really stable before they send him home.”

Nancy nodded, wide-eyed, obviously listening, which wasn’t surprising. Jonathan _was_ surprised to see Steve nodding along as well. 

Noticing motion in the hall beyond Steve’s shoulder, Jonathan let his attention slip over. Chief Hopper was there, looking even rougher than Jonathan felt. Jonathan guessed that the deep frown on his face had something to do with the men following him. They were all wearing suits that made them look like the pastor at the church one of Lonnie’s girlfriends had taken them to before Lonnie stopped asking for visits.

“C’mon,” Hopper said in a low voice as he approached, corralling them with his long arms. “Everyone in the room.”

Somehow Jonathan ended up standing between Nancy and Steve as some men who claimed to be Federal agents told them how it was going to be regarding everything that had gone down. Will had been lost in the woods. The body they’d buried belonged to some other kid. There was no interdimensional gate under Hawkins. A twelve-year-old with superpowers hadn’t saved everyone from an unstoppable monster. 

Nothing to see here. 

“What’s the alternative?” Nancy asked before Jonathan could. When the agents had looked at her blankly, she added, “I mean, if we don’t follow the rules. If we don’t keep this a secret. What happens?”

Their responses were all very serious and very dire. Put on secret-trial-for-treason sort of serious and dire. Nancy still looked like she had a little fight in her, but the last thing Jonathan wanted to see was Nancy Wheeler whisked away to a secret prison god-knows-where. He took a risk and put his hand on her shoulder, hoping that he could somehow get her to see reason. She looked up at him, those bright eyes of hers so wide, and searched his face. He tried to look stern and concerned at the same time (hoping he didn't look anything like Lonnie). Somehow she understood and dropped it. 

After the Feds left and Chief Hopper was talking to his mom, Jonathan walked Nancy (and Steve) to the elevators. “Let us know if you need anything,” Nancy said, like she and Steve were still a whole unit. Hell, they probably were. 

Steve nodded in agreement, before saying, “And hey, let me know if you want a place to bunk for the night. You know, if you get sick of sleeping in hospital chairs.”

Jonathan heard the silent, “_And if you’re too scared to go sleep in your house_,” in Steve’s offer. 

“Thanks,” Jonathan said, knowing he wasn’t going to take him up on it. He could go back home. He had to go back home. In a few days, he was going to have to be there, to help take care of Will if nothing else. Jonathan figured he might just have to get used to running on as little sleep as possible. 

Except when it got late and his mom made him go home to get some sleep, Jonathan couldn’t do it. He couldn’t even get out of his damn car. Not when he knew where Steve’s house was. It wasn’t that far, actually. Just on the other side of the woods from his house. 

No, that would be too weird, wouldn’t it? 

Jonathan decided to drive back to the hospital. Except, he kept almost nodding off. What if he didn’t make it all the way there? He had to be careful. He couldn’t get in an accident. He couldn’t do that to his mom, after everything she’d just been through. When Jonathan arrived at the turn for Nancy’s subdivision, he took it.

He parked a few houses up the street from her place, and went the rest of the way on foot. He was almost to the house when he saw someone approaching from the other direction. Jonathan tried to back up, to hide somewhere out of the way, but it was too late. The figure had obviously seen him by the way it sped up toward him. Jonathan froze.

He froze, just like he had when the monster knocked him down and stood over him, all those teeth just inches from his face and …

"Hey, Jonathan," said the figure in what could only be interpreted as some sort of stage whisper. Between the timbre of the whisper and the silhouette of the hair against the Wilsons' security light down the street, Jonathan recognized the figure. 

"Steve," Jonathan replied, more confused than anything else when Steve Harrington pulled him into a quick, back-slapping hug. “Hey, I, uh…” Suddenly he realized what this might have looked like, and how this exact thing was what made Steve want to start a fight in the first place. “I just…”

“Come on,” he said, his whisper more conspiratorial than in the previous moment. “The best way up is this drainpipe. I can give you a boost if you want.” 

Maybe it was the odd, patchwork lighting from neighborhood street lights and porch lights, but Jonathan thought Steve looked a little wound up. Manic, even. He felt compelled to ask, “Are you okay?”

“That’s a _big_ no!” Steve said this cheerfully and with a hollow laugh, clapping Jonathan’s shoulder. “Up you go, man.”

“Maybe I should just leave y–“

“Jonathan, I swear to god,” Steve said, his voice tight and even more manic, but still pitched just above a whisper. “I haven’t been able to sleep _at all_ since all that shit went down. I have nightmares and either Nancy is dead or you’re dead, or both of you are dead and I’m sick of it. Maybe if you’re in the goddamned room _while_ I’m sleeping, my brain will lay off. What do you think? It’s worth a try, huh?”

Jonathan thought about each time he’d nodded off over the past twenty-four hours. Some of the nightmares had been about Will, but many of them hadn’t. They’d been about his mom, and about Nancy. Mostly they’d been about himself, unable to run away. Inches from being turned into the monster’s next meal.

Those ones had only been half as scary when Jonathan knew Steve was in the dream, about to hit the monster off him. 

Jonathan nodded. “Yeah, okay.” He gave himself a little bit of a running start and pulled up onto the garage roof. Getting a good grip on Nancy’s windowsill, Jonathan leaned down, offering his hand to Steve. 

Steve scoffed, but he took Jonathan’s hand, his grip strong as he used their connection along with his legs and his other arm to get himself up onto the roof. Jonathan was so distracted by the feel of Steve’s shoulder against his and the almost-floral smell of Steve’s hair that the tap Steve gave against Nancy’s window surprised him. 

Looking through the window, Jonathan saw Nancy sitting with her back to them, seemingly unaware of their presence. He reached past Steve to rap on the window again, but louder this time. 

Nancy startled, turning around with a raised fist, her eyes wide with fright. 

“It’s just us,” Steve said with his hands up, all but pressing his face to the glass. Jonathan couldn’t see around him very well, but soon enough the window opened and Steve tumbled through it. 

Jonathan slipped into the room as well, not quite sure where he should stand or what he should do. Nancy wrapped her arms around Steve and Jonathan didn’t know why the sight hurt so much, since it was very much to be expected. He almost turned back to the window, but then Nancy wrapped her arms around him too. 

“Is something going on?” she asked in a low voice when she let him go, her eyes wide and expectant. 

Jonathan shook his head, the exhaustion of the last few days weighing heavy on his bones. “Just needed a place to sleep.”

Nancy didn’t question him, and she didn’t question Steve’s presence either. She simply went into her closet and pulled out a sleeping bag, a pillow, and a few extra blankets. She set these, along with a pillow from her bed, on the floor between the window and said bed. 

It was kind of a narrow space for both him and Steve, but Jonathan figured Steve would end up in the bed at some point, anyway. He and Nancy had already proven that the bed was big enough for two. 

As soon as Jonathan laid his head on the pillow closest to the window and pulled Nancy’s extra blankets over himself, he passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve get used to sleeping in the same place, Will's return home from the hospital disrupts their newfound routine.

Nancy shivered under her blankets. Her room wasn’t cold, and she couldn’t be cold under all her blankets. It was a different sort of shiver. It was a cold, icy feeling that came from within. It came along with the _things _she saw every time she closed her eyes. 

Feeling like a child afraid of the dark, Nancy reached for the lamp beside her bed. Before flipping it on, she realized that Steve and Jonathan were there, sleeping on her floor. Their presence made the darkness a little more bearable, but not entirely. She tried to close her eyes and go back to sleep, but every time she did, she felt sure that something strange and sinister would be waiting for her when she opened them again. 

Nancy stared at the ceiling, her heart pounding and her eyes inventing monsters in the deepest shadows. This was stupid. The human body needed sleep to function correctly. Nancy needed sleep. 

She turned to look at the boys, barely able to determine in the light from the street lamp outside which shapes were theirs and which belonged to the blankets and pillows around them. Jonathan slept curled in on himself, over on his side. Steve, on the other hand, slept on his back, mouth open and slightly snoring. He looked confident even in his sleep, but Nancy saw the way this left him vulnerable. She wanted to shield him somehow, shield both of them, the way she hadn’t protected Barb. 

Keeping her tears silent, Nancy got out of bed, taking her pillow and comforter with her. She stood in the gap between the two of them for a moment, wondering what she was doing. Then sleep called, stronger than it had in awhile. She put her pillow down, moved Steve’s arm out of the way, and lay in the now-open space. 

Both boys shifted a bit, but neither startled awake, and a minute after Nancy got her blanket over herself, she fell back into a state of slumber as well. 

Nancy didn’t wake up until there was a knock on her bedroom door. “Nancy! It’s getting late! I made pancakes!”

She tried to sit up, but two different arms were holding her down. Despite the constraint, Nancy felt almost _ safe _ for the first time in over a week. She called out to her mom, “Okay! I’ll be down in a minute!”

Steve started awake, his arm tightening across Nancy’s upper chest. Jonathan blinked and snatched his arm back from where it had been across Nancy’s stomach. She looked back and forth between the two of them, noting Jonathan’s wide-eyed fear and Steve’s sleepy-eyed obliviousness. 

“Um,” she said, sitting up between them. Not being able to see their faces anymore made it easy to admit, “I got scared. I hope you don’t mind that I…”

“Mm-mmh,” Steve mumbled in the negative. “Do what ya gotta do, babe.”

“We should go,” Jonathan said, reaching for his shoes and pulling them on. “I’ve got to get back to the hospital.”

“Need a ride?” Steve asked, still sort of slurring his words with sleep. He rubbed his eyes and watched Nancy stand up and head for her dresser. 

She didn’t miss the surprised tone in Jonathan’s voice as he said, “N-no. I’ve got my car. Thanks?”

Steve made a gesture that Nancy interpreted as a sort of suit-yourself acknowledgment. Jonathan gave Nancy a long look as he nodded, and then he stood. He opened the window and left, slipping out onto the roof and then down into the lawn below. The sky wasn’t quite light out yet, but it was getting close. During this time of year, that meant it was going to be time for school soon. 

It took Steve a little longer to gather up his things, give Nancy a kiss, and leave after Jonathan. Nancy rushed through her morning routine, taking just enough time to shove the extra blankets and pillows under her bed. _ For next time _, her brain supplied. 

~*~

Steve tried to stick it out at home the next night, and the one after that, but both nights he ended up back at Nancy’s, sleeping on her floor. The first night he got there after Jonathan, and the second night before. Both nights they ended up sleeping all three of them in a pile of blankets and sleeping bags and pillows next to Nancy’s bed. 

That second night, Steve woke up before dawn with a painful crick in his neck. He was still tired enough and it was close enough to morning that when he crawled up into Nancy’s bed, he was able to pass out again a minute later. The next time he woke up, half his shoulder was off the bed, Nancy was laying mostly on top of him, and Jonathan was laying mostly on top of her. 

Huh. He wouldn’t have figured Nancy’s little bed would have fit all of them. But it did. 

Well, sort of. 

Steve had just started to have the thought that it felt kind of like he was slipping, and then he was halfway to the floor. By pure reflex, he caught one of the bars of the headboard with his hand and one from the footboard with his foot. He sat there, not in bed anymore, but not on the floor, for a good five seconds as he tried to figure out what to do. 

Nancy looked over the edge of the bed at him, mumbling, “Oh my god,” in a sleepy voice. She reached for him, but at that point Steve figured just giving up was the best option. 

He lowered himself the rest of the way to the ground with a little bit of a thump, but besides his ego, nothing else was bruised. Looking up at Nancy, he whispered, “Your bed is too small.”

“Maybe you’re just too big,” she replied, with a smile that was far cheekier than should be allowed at 6-whatever o’clock in the morning. “It’s time to get going anyway.”

“Jesus,” murmured Jonathan from the other side of the bed. “_ What _ time is it?”

“Time to leave, buddy,” Steve told him, reaching across Nancy to tousle Jonathan’s hair. Jonathan grumbled and batted him away, but Nancy laughed. Her laugh never failed to make Steve feel like he was actually doing something right. He noticed the way it made Jonathan smile too, even if Jonathan hid that smile against his shoulder and turned away. 

Slipping through Nancy’s window into the freezing-cold November morning, Steve felt better rested than he had in _ weeks _. He bounced along next to Jonathan on their way to where their cars were parked down the road. “Gonna be at school today?”

“First half,” Jonathan said, his eyes down and his shoulders shrugged. “Will’s getting out of the hospital this afternoon. I’m gonna help with all that.”

“Oh, great!” Steve said, not even thinking twice before putting his arm around Jonathan’s shoulders and giving him a friendly squeeze. “Good luck!”

“Thanks.” Jonathan actually looked up when he smiled, giving Steve a quick flash of the expression before unlocking his car and getting in. 

The warmth that smile instilled in Steve’s chest was almost enough to knock the chill from his bones while he waited for his car to warm up. 

When he got home, Steve’s dad was already gone and his mom was still asleep. No one asked where he’d been. No one made him breakfast, and certainly no one made sure he was at school on time. As long as his parents didn’t hear from his school, or his coach, they left him to his own devices. 

He knew some kids, like Tommy H., who would kill to have their parents off their backs. Steve figured it had its perks. On the other hand, having to come back to a quiet house to shower and get dressed, after spending the night pressed close to two other people made him feel lonely here. 

Unwanted. 

Scared. 

~*~

It wasn’t until they were walking through the front door that Jonathan realized he hadn’t cleaned up the house _ at all _ since that night. The hole in the living room wall was boarded-over, but the wallpaper was still wrecked. There were still big, black letters written on the other wall, a string of christmas lights running over them. There were scorch marks on the hallway rug, and up the walls. He’d moved the bear trap out to the shed the second time he’d been back to the house, but that was out of necessity, so he didn’t trip. 

“I’m sorry,” he told his mom as she looked around, wide-eyed. “I forgot to clean up!”

“Oh, Jonathan,” she said, shaking her head and pulling him into a one-armed hug that ended in a kiss to his cheek. “You’ve had much bigger and more important things to worry about.”

“But you shouldn’t– _ Will _shouldn’t have to come home to this!”

Will staggered over to the couch and lowered himself on it, breathing heavily. He gave Jonathan a little smile and said between breaths, “I...kinda like...it.”

Joyce laughed and went to Will, holding him close and motioning for Jonathan to join them. He did so, making mental plans around what he was going to clean first. 

An hour later, he was just taking down the first string of Christmas lights when there was a knock at the door. Jonathan had half a thought that it was going to be Nancy, but when he opened the door, it was Chief Hopper standing there. “Oh, hey.”

The chief cleared his throat. “Hey. Your mom here?”

Jonathan paused for a second, half confused, half wondering if the Chief was trying to make a joke. “She’s here. We’re getting Will settled.”

“Right, yeah,” he said, biting his lip awkwardly. “Yep, okay, so…” He started to turn away, which made Jonathan feel bad. The Chief had driven all the way out here after all.

“D’you want me to go get her?”

The Chief turned back, and there was this look in his eye despite the way Hopper shook his head. “N-no. You don’t have t–”

“I’m getting her,” Jonathan told him, leaving the door open and hoping the Chief would have the good sense to come in and close the door behind him. 

Jonathan gave a light rap on Will’s bedroom door before sticking his head in. Joyce was sitting on Will’s bed, petting her hand over Will’s hair. Jonathan figured Will was letting her get away with it because he had almost died. Or, it could be the fact that he was fast asleep, as far as Jonathan could see. 

When Joyce looked up, Jonathan told her, “The chief’s here to see you.”

“Hopper?” She asked in a whisper, and Jonathan almost asked her if there were any other chiefs she knew and had been through harrowing situations with recently.

He bit down on that impulse and simply nodded. “Yeah.”

“Sit with him, would you?” Joyce said, pointing to the space on Will’s bed she’d just vacated as she got up. “Sit, sit!”

Jonathan sat, feeling like a very good dog. Not that he wasn’t grateful to be able to sit next to his brother. For a few days there it seemed like he was never going to have the chance again. Just, now that Will was back, Jonathan was starting to notice how Joyce was only concerning herself with Will, not with him. It was understandable – hell, even expected, given the circumstances – but it still hurt.

“Hey,” croaked Will, his dark eyes having opened while Jonathan was lost in his thoughts. “What’s got you looking like that?”

Jonathan smiled. At least Will never seemed to forget him, even if Joyce did. “Nothing,” Jonathan assured Will. “Just glad you’re home.”

“Thanks.” Will went silent for a moment, closing his eyes like he was going back to sleep. He probably needed it. Jonathan was about to stand up and go get his homework to work on or something, when Will spoke up again. “Was I dreaming or did Nancy Wheeler and Steve Harrington visit you while I was in the hospital?”

“You weren’t dreaming.”

“Were they there because Nancy is Mike’s sister?”

“Nancy’s my friend now,” Jonathan said, not really sounding quite sure of it himself. “Steve too.”

Will’s little laugh seemed to take a lot out of him. “Yeah, right.”

“Well,” Jonathan said, poking Will’s side gently (he dared not poke him any harder), “when you fight a monster with someone, it’s kinda hard not to be friends afterward.”

“Whatever, dweeb!” Will’s voice was teasing, but he was starting to look a little pale and glassy-eyed. 

“Go back to sleep, nerd,” Jonathan told him, tucking the covers around him a little tighter. “You look like you need it.”

“Maybe,” Will said, but he was already closing his eyes and drifting off. 

Later that night, Jonathan lay in his room, unable to turn his last lamp off. He found himself clutching his pillow and staring at his closed door. It was stupid. The monster was dead. It had been for almost a week. It couldn’t get him here. It wasn’t getting Will. It wasn’t out there somewhere getting Nancy or Steve. 

But still it kept Jonathan from sleeping. 

He thought he might have nodded off a time or two, but it always ended in him waking with a start, terrified of the monster that had almost killed him. Jonathan curled in on himself, wishing he’d asked Nancy and Steve to come stay with him. 

Jesus, he was such a loser. He needed the girl he liked and her _ boyfriend _ to come protect him while he slept. How did he think this was going to end? Not well, that’s for sure. Eventually they were going to get over everything and realize that they didn’t need him. 

Jonathan might as well start practicing for that eventuality. He put his pillow over his head and recited his favorite song lyrics, waiting for morning to come. 

~*~

Steve climbed in through Nancy's window later than usual. Nancy was still awake, of course, so when Steve joined her in bed, she asked, "What kept you?"

"My mother actually wanted to talk to me, for once," he told her, snuggling close. Nancy pulled him in as close as she could. The warmth of Steve's body made everything feel a little less scary. "It took awhile to get away."

Steve looked back at the window and frowned. "It _ is _late. Where's Jonathan?"

"Will came home from the hospital today," Nancy reminded him. "He's probably busy with all that."

"Oh," Steve said, and Nancy thought she heard some disappointment in the flatness of his tone. "Yeah, I suppose he's got stuff to do." Steve settled down against the pillows, his breath on the back of Nancy's neck and his arm around her waist.

He still felt too far away. Maybe it was the fact that he was covering Nancy's back, but there was no one for her to hold onto in turn. Maybe it was the fact that two of them fit easily into the bed, no third person there to force that extra bit of closeness.

And what did it mean, that Steve apparently _ missed _ Jonathan? Should Nancy feel jealous? Or should she feel relieved, because she wasn't alone in missing Jonathan? He was supposed to be here and his absence felt uncomfortable and wrong. Like an itch that couldn't be scratched. Like a missing valve in her heart that kept it beating lopsided, suffocating her as it failed to properly drive blood to her lungs, leaving it just sitting there, pooling until her heart felt ready to _ explode _.

Did Steve feel all that too? How could he?

Nancy caught sight of her clock in the light from the street lamp outside. It was almost one in the morning, and she still hadn't fallen asleep. Come to think of it, Steve felt stiff behind Nancy, his arm around her waist too light, too _ careful _. She couldn't hear the long breaths she'd come to think of as Steve's sleeping sounds. 

Turning to face him, Nancy asked, "Are you still awake?"

"Yeah," he whispered, laying flat and tugging at Nancy until she was resting on his shoulder, bracketed between his ribs and his arm. "Can't sleep."

"Me neither," she said with a sigh. "This is dumb. We should be able to sleep without him."

Steve made a noise of affirmation. "Maybe if we turn on the light?"

"Really embrace being afraid of the dark?" Nancy asked, snorting with dry amusement. "I guess it couldn't hurt." She reached over for the bedside lamp, and halfway there she was struck by the conviction that something was going to reach out of the darkness and wrap sharp fingers around her wrist.

Of course, as soon as she turned on the light, nothing was there and her fear felt outsized and silly. Without any dark corners to the room, Nancy was finally able to fall asleep. She slept fitfully, waking up and rearranging herself a few times before morning came.

When Nancy's mom came knocking to wake her up for school, Nancy stumbled out of bed blearily, calling, "I'm up! I'm up." She almost unlocked her door before realizing that Steve was still asleep in her bed. She shook him awake, saying, "Hey, you've got to go."

"What?" Steve asked with his eyes still closed. Eventually Nancy got him up and out of her house. 

She didn't see Steve before first period, and when he caught up with her after a second, he was wearing his sunglasses inside. 

Nancy told Steve, "People are going to think you're hung over."

"Better they think that than the truth," he replied, giving Nancy a kiss and putting his arm around her as he walked her to class.

As they approached Nancy's classroom, they met Jonathan coming from the other direction. He and Nancy shared third period, but given everything, Nancy hadn't expected to see him that day. The dark circles under his eyes and the almost-confused look on his face said that maybe it would have been better if he _ had _taken another day off.

"You okay, man?" Steve asked, probably seeing the same things in Jonathan's appearance that Nancy had.

"Didn't sleep," was all Jonathan said before ducking into the classroom.

Nancy gave Steve a farewell wave before following Jonathan in. She sat in the seat ahead of his, so she turned around and whispered, "We slept with the light on." 

Jonathan gave Nancy a puzzled look, like he couldn't figure out _ why _ Nancy and Steve would need to have the light on.

She elaborated, "Because you weren't there."

It looked like there might have been a tiny flicker of understanding that passed over Jonathan's face. Before he could respond, the bell rang and class began. Nancy spent the lecture trying to pay attention, but fighting the almost-constant urge to turn around and check on Jonathan.

When class was finally over, Nancy turned to talk to him, only to have Ally ask her about volunteering to help coordinate the winter dance. By the time Nancy had a second to look around, Jonathan was gone.

~*~

Steve tried his best not to skip class, but sometimes it was warranted. What he hadn't told Nancy about the sunglasses was that they were helping with the mother-of-all-headaches that he'd developed that morning. Steve figured that headaches and pre-calc weren't a great combination, so he spent third period lying down in the nurse's office, and then fourth hanging out in the bathrooms by the cafeteria. Headaches and English class didn't go together either.

Steve had been doodling on the stall door with a pen when he heard the bathroom door open, then close. Then it opened again, a familiar voice following through. "Hey, Byers! Is it true what they're saying about your brother? He died and came back to life?"

"Like some sort of zombie?" asked another voice with a laugh. Steve knew the first voice belonged to Tommy H. The second was probably Sean Hauser, if Steve had to take a guess.

His headache suddenly felt worse.

"Answer the q–" Tommy started to say, but he was cut off when Steve opened his stall door so hard it slammed against the divider wall. His head didn't appreciate the loud noise, but the effect it had on Tommy and (Steve was right) Sean was worth it. 

"Don't you assholes have anything better to do?" Steve asked, putting himself between said assholes and Jonathan.

"What the fuck," Tommy said, stepping closer to Steve. Oh, he was itching to start a fight, wasn't he? Like always. "Why are you defending this loser? First he steals your girl, then he rearranges your face, and you're on _ his _side?"

"No, you got it wrong," Steve replied, taking off his sunglasses and squinting a little at how bright it got. "See what this kid did to my face a week ago?" Steve couldn't help but wink back at Jonathan, who looked half-pissed, half-lost. "I'm looking out for you guys. _ And _your girlfriends."

Ever the gentleman, Tommy sneered, "Sean doesn't have a girlfriend." Sean socked Tommy in the shoulder.

"Well he isn't gonna find one hanging around in here," Steve said, hoping that would diffuse the situation a little. Sean seemed to back off slightly, but Tommy didn't.

"I still say his brother's a zombie."

Jonathan snapped, pushing himself past Steve and getting close to Tommy, "Don't you fucking talk about my brother!" He shoved Tommy back, making him run into Sean and then bounce off the bathroom wall. "Go find someone else to bother and let me fucking pee in god damn peace!"

Tommy stood gaping, and Steve knew that even though Tommy had been there when Jonathan and Steve had their fight, he'd never imagined Jonathan standing up to _ him _. 

Steve stood at Jonathan's shoulder and crossed his arms. "You heard the man. Get lost."

For a second, it looked like Tommy was about to go for it and start the fight. But then Sean shook his head and left the bathroom. Without someone else at his back, Tommy must have decided a fight wasn't going to go his way. He flipped Steve off and left.

"Thanks," Jonathan muttered, turning toward the urinals and getting on with his business.

Steve thought he probably should go, but he didn't. Just for an excuse to stay, Steve stepped up to a sink and washed his hands. When Jonathan joined him, Steve made the incredibly astute observation, "Those guys are assholes."

Jonathan shook his head. "They're small."

Steve focused on Jonathan's face, trying to work out what he meant by that. "I guess Tommy's kind of short, but Sean…"

"No," Jonathan said, turning off the water and shaking off his hands to dry them. "I mean, in the scope of all the problems I've had lately, those guys being assholes is a small problem. I'm over it."

Except with the way he hunched his shoulders and tried to escape, Steve thought Jonathan looked anything but "over it".

Steve said, "Don't kill me, okay?" as he moved into Jonathan's space and wrapped his arms around Jonathan's shoulders.

"What the fuck is this, Steve? If you–"

"It's a _ hug _," Steve insisted, noticing the way Jonathan didn't shove him away. "I'm sorry things are shitty, Jonathan."

Jonathan nodded, stepping just a little closer and resting his forehead against Steve's shoulder. His voice broke when he said, "Thanks."

Steve gave him one more squeeze for good measure before letting him go. "Can Nancy and I come by tonight?"

Jonathan narrowed his eyes at Steve for a second, but eventually nodded.

"Cool. Great," Steve said, pushing a hand back through his hair and trying not to sound as relieved as he felt.

~*~

Jonathan had to admit that when nine o'clock rolled around and Steve and Nancy hadn't showed up, he felt more disappointed than he should have. He should have known that whatever tenuous truce he'd had with _ popular _ kids wouldn't last more than a week.

That hug Steve had given him was a little weird. Maybe Jonathan had dreamed that and hadn't realized it was a dream. Most of the day had passed in a fog of semi-consciousness.

"Hey, Jonathan," Joyce said as she knocked on his door and stuck her head through. "Can I come in?"

"Sure," Jonathan said, setting aside the homework he'd been staring at for the past twenty minutes.

Joyce came all the way over and enveloped Jonathan in a hug. Jonathan sank into it, putting his arms around his mom and holding on. Two hugs in a day was a thing he kind of wanted to savor. Holding on even tighter, Joyce said, "Thank you."

"For what?" Jonathan asked, closing his eyes and just enjoying the way his mom stroked her hand over his hair.

"You've been so great," she told him, lifting Jonathan's chin so he had to look at her. "I know you haven't really been a kid for a few years, but I've been relying on you like you're an adult. But you're not yet, and I just want both of us to try to keep that in mind now that your brother's back home. Okay?"

Jonathan wondered if his mom hadn't gained some sort of perspective through this whole thing, too. He nodded. "Yeah, okay, Mom. Thanks."

She kissed his forehead, wiped the kiss away, and said, "Get some sleep, baby. You look like you need it."

"You, too," he told her with a knowing grin.

Joyce chuckled and shook her head, closing Jonathan's door as she left.

Deciding that his mom was right and his homework could wait, he climbed into bed. He turned off his light and closed his eyes, waiting for sleep to come.

Jonathan listened to his mother move around the house for a few more minutes, eventually ending her path back in Will's room. 

An hour later, sleep still wouldn't come. 

Jonathan had almost resigned himself to spending another night sleeping in fits and starts, ten minutes at a time, when he heard a sound outside his window.

The sound reminded Jonathan of footsteps crunching through the frost-frozen leaves in the back yard. 

He held his breath and froze. 

Was it back? Was it looking for them again, here? Was Jonathan stupid to allow his family to come back here after everything that had happened?

A slight rapping sound on his window made Jonathan jump out of his skin. Goosebumps covered his whole body and he was about to reach for his bedside light when he realized two things. First of all, monsters didn't knock, at least not in his experience. Second, if it was a monster, turning on his light would only draw its attention.

So instead, Jonathan slid out of bed, staying low because it felt safer, and quickly made his way to the window. Moving aside just one plank of his blinds, Jonathan peeked outside.

It wasn't a monster. It was Steve and Nancy, who he could see in the light of their single flashlight, augmented a little with light from the moon. They had kept Steve's promise. They also looked way too vulnerable out there.

As quietly as he could, Jonathan left his room and went around through the kitchen to the back door. He opened it, wincing at the way it squeaked. The light of the flashlight jumped toward him, so Jonathan gave a wave.

When Nancy got close enough, with Steve just behind her, Jonathan whispered, "I didn't think you were actually coming."

"We'll sleep better," Nancy said, crowding close, which Jonathan didn't quite understand until he realized how damn cold it actually was. And he was wearing sleep shorts.

"Be as quiet as you can," he told them, gesturing them ahead into the house. He stayed last to gently ease the squeaky door closed. When he turned back around, it was to find both of them with their shoes in their hands and Steve turning the flashlight off. "Follow me," he whispered.

Jonathan led his two friends – were they his friends? If not, what were they instead? – back to his room through the dark house.

Steve closed the bedroom door behind him and Jonathan reached around him to lock it. He figured they'd locked the door every night at Nancy's, they should probably do the same here. As he leaned past, he realized that being this close to the both of them felt calming. And right.

He yawned.

Every night at Nancy's, Jonathan had taken the right side of the bed, closest to the windows. He decided he might as well do the same here. He got into bed, and after Nancy shed her coat and the sweatpants she'd had over her pajamas, she did the same. Steve stripped down to his t-shirt and boxer shorts before following her in.

It was all a weird sort of normal. Nancy put herself between Jonathan's side and his arm, holding him a little more possessively than she had in the past. Steve draped himself over Nancy's back, which trapped Jonathan's arm between the two of them. Jonathan decided it wasn't a bad sort of trapped. His arm didn't hurt or lose circulation or anything.

The most comfortable place for his hand was on Nancy's waist. Jonathan was too tired to think much of it when Steve put his hand almost on top of Jonathan's. He thought he might ask about it in the morning, but he was asleep seconds after having the thought. 

The next morning, when Jonathan stumbled out of his room to start making breakfast, he saw that Joyce had already made it. "So," she said, setting a plate of eggs and toast in front of Jonathan. Will wasn't there – likely still sleeping and recovering. "I just saw your friends escaping through the back yard. Do you want to tell me what that's about?"

Jonathan sat down at the table, suddenly not very hungry. "I don't know," he said, taking a bite of his toast, but not really tasting it. The look Joyce gave him told Jonathan she wasn't going to settle until she got an answer. "I guess it's how we're coping with what happened."

"Oh, sweetie," Joyce said, sitting down next to Jonathan and putting her hand over his. "I understand that this has been … _ traumatic _ ." She sighed and squeezed his hand. "I just don't want any of you to get hurt, or sick, or _ pregnant _."

Jonathan jerked his head up to look at his mom, sure he hadn't heard what he did. "Pregnant?" The meaning of her words suddenly struck him. "Mom!" He snatched his hand away from hers.

"Hey," she said, patting his cheek as he stared at her in disbelief and mortification. "It can happen. It happened to me and your father." And _ that _was something Jonathan never wanted to think about. Ever. "All I'm saying is to be careful."

"We're _ not _ …" Jonathan tried to explain. "Well, _ I'm _not..." He gave a sharp sigh of frustration. "It's just sleeping! None of us have been able to sleep alone since … Well, since everything. The whole time Will was in the hospital…" He paused, but figured he was caught. He might as well confess. She was going to get it out of him eventually, anyway. "Every night I went to Nancy's and slept next to her and Steve. Except the night before last, when I didn't really sleep at all…"

"Oh, Jonathan," she sighed, pulling him into a hug. "That's why you looked so tired."

Jonathan looked up and tried to blink away the tears that were threatening to fall. "You've been sleeping next to Will all this time, keeping him company. I just … needed company too."

"Oh, I understand, baby," Joyce said, pulling back from hugging Jonathan and meeting his eyes. "Just be careful, okay? For me?"

Jonathan nodded.

He thought that was the end of it, but when he got home after school to change for his shift at the store, there was a box sitting on his pillow. On closer inspection, it was a box of condoms.

Instantly mortified, Jonathan grabbed the box and shoved it under his bed, throwing an old t-shirt over it for good measure. Jesus, he knew his mom meant well, but did she have to be such a menace about it?

He left the house without making eye contact with anyone, and he was pretty sure he was still blushing when he clocked in for work.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sneaking around at night has consequences for Nancy, and maybe Joyce isn't as far off the mark as Jonathan assumes she is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that this is the chapter with that slight non-con trigger warning.

Nancy felt tense on the drive home from Jonathan's house. "It's getting so late."

"It's only just seven," Steve reassured her. "We've got an hour and a half before school starts."

"I'm not worried about getting ready on time. It's already light out. How am I supposed to get back into the house without anyone seeing me?"

"Back through the window," Steve said with a silly grin. "Like a ninja." His smile faded when he saw Nancy's unamused expression. "I'll give you a boost. We'll go really quick."

"So quick," Nancy insisted as Steve drove past her house, parking in front of the Millers' house, which had a densely tree-filled front yard that felt more covered and less exposed than the rest of the neighborhood.

Nancy and Steve dashed from the car to her house, right to the intersection of the house and the garage. Steve boosted Nancy up onto the garage roof and she was just pushing up her window when her father's voice called out, "Just what do you think you're doing?"

Her heart in her stomach, Nancy peered over the edge of the garage roof. Steve stood there wide-eyed and frozen. Her father, Ted, stood a few feet away from Steve with his hands on his hips. He looked squarely at Nancy and oh god, he had seen everything!

"Why am I finding you sneaking back into your room at this early hour, young lady?"

"Because I didn't get back early enough?" Nancy tried, even though she knew her dad wouldn't see the humor in it.

Unfortunately, Steve did, making him snort and stifle a laugh.

Ted looked calm, but Nancy could tell he was furious. Well, as furious as he ever got. He pointed at Steve, saying, "_ You _, go home. Don't come back." He pointed at Nancy and said, "You get down from there this instant."

Nancy thought about escaping back through the window into her locked room, but as Steve sadly waved goodbye, she figured she shouldn't push her father any more than he'd already been pushed. She climbed down from the roof, using the drain pipe to steady herself. Once on the ground, Nancy let her father march her back in through the front door and into the kitchen.

"Karen," Ted said to his wife, getting her attention up from the stove, where she was cooking breakfast. "Look who I found sneaking back into the house after spending the night somewhere else!!"

Karen turned and Nancy found the lack of surprise on her mother's face unsettling. She knew. She had known. Nancy narrowed her eyes. How _ much _ did she know?

"That Steven boy was helping her climb back through her window!" Ted added, clearly looking to Karen to deal with the situation.

"Whoa, really?" Mike asked as he came into the kitchen. "Way to go!" he teased sarcastically.

"Shut it, dweeb," Nancy spat back at him. At least this felt a little like getting back to normal. 

"That's not helpful, Michael," Karen said, placing a plate in front of him before coming to face Nancy.

Karen had that odd knowing expression that Nancy knew better than to trust. "Grounded for two weeks," she declared.

Nancy's heart sank. Being grounded that long meant she'd hardly get to see Steve or Jonathan at all! Nancy wanted to protest, but the arch of Karen's eyebrow made her reconsider. All told, her punishment could have been much worse than being grounded for two weeks, and they both knew it.

Nancy nodded. "I understand." 

She had no idea how she was going to sleep alone in her room with her thoughts and the dark.

Maybe it was time to get over everything that had happened and learn to sleep by herself again. After all, that's what adults did, right? That's what Nancy wanted to be, and soon.

Karen made Nancy a plate of breakfast and placed it into her hands. "Now go eat, darling. There's not much time before you need to leave for school."

Nancy had no appetite, but she tried to eat as much as she could anyway. You never knew when you would need the energy to run for your life, after all.

~*~

"I'll be quiet," Steve told Nancy as he walked her from her locker to where her mother was picking her up, enforcing the grounding Nancy had been saddled with. "Quiet like a ninja."

"Better not risk it," Nancy insisted, going up on her toes to place a kiss on Steve's jaw. "I don't want them to add anymore time to my sentence."

"I guess," Steve relented, unhappy with the situation. He said goodbye to Nancy and went to basketball practice as planned. Steve did pretty well at practice, but by the end of practice the next day, Coach was going to decide who got to start. If Steve ended up warming the bench the entire season, he wasn't sure what he was going to do. Give up entirely, maybe.

How was Steve supposed to play well if he couldn't sleep? How was he supposed to sleep alone? Or at least, how was he supposed to sleep without Nancy? He'd be worrying about her the entire night. And it wasn't like he could go over to Jonathan's alone, right?

Even after a hard basketball practice, when Steve laid down in his bed alone and tried to go to sleep, he just felt all wrong and uncomfortable. The darkness seemed to crawl. Every little noise made him jump out of his skin. 

He scribbled a note to his parents, just in case either of them cared, and left the house. Nancy didn't want to get in any more trouble, so Steve went to Jonathan's. It didn't take long after Steve tapped on Jonathan's window before the back door opened and Jonathan let him in.

Steve knew the way to Jonathan's room in the dark, and while he wished the lights were on, he didn't want to get Jonathan in trouble too. When he stepped on that one spot in the hallway carpet, Steve smelled the toasted singed odor that still featured heavily in his nightmares. Maybe he could get Jonathan to come to his place the next night. If he wasn't needed to help take care of his brother, that was.

Once Jonathan's bedroom door was closed, he whispered to Steve, "I didn't think you'd come without Nancy."

"What can I say?" Steve replied, shrugging out of his jacket and kicking off his shoes. "I need to sleep, right?"

"Right," Jonathan said. Steve watched his shadow crawl back into the bed. Then Steve shucked off his jeans and followed, settling into the same spot he'd slept the night before.

It was a little weird without Nancy there, but Steve had that thought and then realized that he'd been sleeping. He'd slept for awhile from the feel of things. It was still dark out, but Jonathan's alarm clock was backlit and read 5:38. Steve decided he didn't have to go quite yet, so he rolled over and fell back asleep.

~*~

Jonathan had been letting Steve in through the back door for three nights and kicking him back out for two mornings before the third morning happened. When he woke up, he was warmer and more pinned down than usual. For a second, he thought Nancy had finally grown sick of being grounded and has somehow gotten in while he was sleeping.

Then he realized that the arm around his waist was too big to be Nancy's. And yep, that was Steve's distinctive light snoring right behind his ear. Jonathan thought about pushing Steve away, but then he remembered the day in the bathroom, when Steve had hugged him, and how nice that had been. 

Jonathan remembered being younger and while he'd never had that many friends, eight year olds didn't care as much about how little money you had or whether your dad was around or not. He and his friends would play around and wrestle and pile on top of each other back then. Jonathan had always found that fun and nice. These days, even though his classmates were older, they were much stupider in his opinion. The friends he used to have avoided him, and the only time he'd tried to make a new one, he'd gone and photographed her through a window while she was changing. Things with Nancy only worked out because a monster had attacked them. Jonathan had no delusions. He wasn't the sort of person who made friends easily, or at all.

It surprised him to find out that he'd been missing having friends this entire time. He'd been missing hugs and little pushes and ruffles through his hair. Jonathan had been missing a lot. It felt strange to finally have something like it again. Strange and precious.

Jonathan held still, not wanting to accidentally nudge Steve and drive him away. He held still long enough that he fell asleep again, feeling warm and maybe almost happy. 

~*~

"Guess what?" Nancy said when she saw Steve at school the Monday morning before Christmas break.

Steve shrugged, leaning against the lockers next to hers, his books held against his chest. He looked more well-rested than Nancy felt. While sleeping alone, with the light on, she'd been getting maybe four or five hours of sleep for the last week and a half. He said, "I don't know. Your parents decided to spring you early?"

Nancy nodded excitedly. "Time off for good behavior," she told him. She did _ not _ mention the doctor her mother had taken her to under duress and without her father's knowledge. And she _ definitely _wasn't going to tell Steve about the pills that doctor had given her. At least not here in the middle of the school hallway. "I'm not grounded anymore. I'm not sure I'll be able to sneak out again anytime soon, but I can see you before curfew."

Steve gave Nancy a very fond smile. "That's great news! You should come over after basketball practice!"

Nancy was about to ask what Steve wanted to do with the two hours between practice and weeknight curfew, when Ally came up to them with a grin. She held something up over Nancy's head and said, "Mistletoe! Now you have to kiss!"

Nancy could have smacked Ally, but Steve's grin widened. He pushed himself away from the lockers and drew Nancy into a nice, deep kiss.

The kiss made Nancy realize that it had been a long time since she and Steve had actually made out. Barb had gone missing, and then everything with the monster happened. She hadn't felt much like making out since then.

Until now.

When Steve pulled back, grinning and a little flushed, Nancy felt a deep surge of want bubble up in her body. Ally whistled and moved onto her next targets. 

Nancy met Steve's eye and asked, "What about skipping basketball practice and doing some more of that?"

Steve groaned and curled in on himself, "Oh, you're killing me, Wheeler! I _ have _to go to practice! I'm one of the team captains! They need me!"

The warning bell rang, so Nancy gave Steve a mischievous smile and started walking to class, leaving Steve behind. 

~*~

When Nancy sat down across from Jonathan in fifth period, she looked flushed, like she'd been running in PE class. Except he knew that she had PE in eighth. Her lips were also redder than normal, but he knew she wasn't usually one to wear dark lipstick. Jonathan hadn't seen her during lunch, but he didn't want to ask her where she'd been and give up how desperately he wanted to know.

Come to think of it, he hadn't seen Nancy _ or _ Steve at lunch. Not that he'd been looking for them. (He'd been looking for them.) Neither of them had been at lunch, and now Nancy was flushed. Jonathan could guess at this point that they hadn't been out jogging. 

The thought of the two of them making out, or whatever else they'd been doing, made Jonathan feel suddenly very lonely. He wanted that with someone, too. To be honest, he wanted that with Nancy, and he had for awhile. The problem was that Nancy wanted Steve, and at this point Steve was one of Jonathan's closest friends, as weird as that was to think about. Jonathan didn't want to hurt Steve. So he was stuck, at least until he met someone he wanted half as much as he wanted Nancy. 

Two nights later, it was Friday night and Jonathan was still awake and alone at midnight. Deciding he'd had enough of not sleeping (and missing Steve's presence more than he thought he would), he got out of bed. He scribbled a note using the light from his alarm clock and left it on his pillow for his mother to find.

Though he'd only been there once, Jonathan found the house and, going around back toward the woods, he found Steve's window without issue. Just like every time he'd looked into the woods between his house and Steve's, Jonathan half-expected a monster to come stalking out of them. Jonathan thought about seeing if the back door was open, but he didn't know whether Steve was actually here. He didn't want to get arrested, or even shot, for breaking into the house without Steve to defend his presence. To make sure it was Steve, and only Steve, who noticed Jonathan, he found some gravel from the side yard. He tossed pieces at Steve's window until the back door opened and a sleep-ruffled Steve waved him in.

"Can I--" Jonathan started to ask, but Steve just sort of grunted and took Jonathan's hand. Steve led Jonathan upstairs and into a room that was almost pitch black, closing the door behind them.

The rustling straight ahead told Jonathan that Steve had gotten back in bed. Figuring this amounted to an invitation, Jonathan took off his shoes and jacket. He found the bed by feel and got in. Steve had left him more than enough space, so Jonathan pulled on some blankets and fell directly asleep.

~*~

Steve woke up before he was ready, but he was too hot and his mouth was too dry to go back to sleep. Also, he kinda really needed to pee. Jonathan -- oh, yeah, he vaguely remembered letting Jonathan in -- was plastered to his back. Steve himself was curled around Nancy. 

Jesus, he had to pee.

As best he could while only half awake, Steve slipped out of bed and headed for the bathroom. He used the toilet, stuck his mouth under the faucet to get a drink, and went back to bed.

Except being back in the middle sounded too hot. So, Steve got back in on Jonathan's side, where there was more space, and fell back asleep.

~*~

When Nancy sort of woke up, it was too hot. She could literally feel herself sweating. She went to push Steve's arm off of her and realized he was wearing a long-sleeve shirt. Geez, no wonder she was so hot. Ally was covering for her today, so she didn't have to rush home, which was good. Nancy felt like she could use quite a few more hours of sleep, if only it wasn't so hot. Kicking off the covers didn't work, because the air was way too cold for her naked skin. In her half-asleep mind, she decided there was only one other option.

Steve should have known better than to put on long pajamas sometime during the night. Especially long pajamas that smelled like they belonged to Jonathan, whatever _ that _was about. Nancy got the shirt off Steve without waking him. She went ahead and took his pajama pants too, leaving him in his underwear.

There. Much better.

Nancy put her back to Steve, pulled his arm back over her waist, and fell back asleep, saying a prayer of thanks for dark mornings and even darker shades. 

~*~

While Jonathan distinctly remembered falling asleep in Steve's bed, he woke up with his face buried in what smelled and felt like Nancy's hair. Huh. Nancy must have come over after breakfast -- it felt pretty late in the morning -- and climbed into bed with them.

Jonathan didn't realize that he should've still been wearing a shirt until Steve rolled up close behind him and wrapped an arm around Jonathan's chest. Steve's chest against his back also felt bare, and the sensation was kind of overwhelming, until he realized that Nancy's back against his chest was bare too.

His blood rushed away from his head so quickly, he was fairly certain that had he not already been lying down, he would have fainted.

Terrified of what Nancy would do if she woke up and realized his boner was pressing against her ass, Jonathan tilted his hips away from her. This had the unfortunate side effect of pressing _ his _ass against Steve's crotch.

Steve mumbled something unintelligible, tightened his hold on Jonathan, and rubbed his hard dick against the meat of Jonathan's butt. At the realization of what had just happened occurred to Jonathan, he involuntarily made a sound not unlike one would make upon being punched in the gut.

Nancy stirred and Jonathan realized he still had his arm around her. He snatched his arm away, endured another rub of Steve's dick against his ass, and wondered what it would feel like to put Steve's hand over his own dick all in the span of about half a second. It was a lot.

Nancy turned around, blinking sleepily, and said, "Jonathan?"

"I didn't–" Jonathan tried to say, holding up his hands. "I mean, I didn't _ mean _to–" He tried to roll onto his back, but somehow Steve had gotten another arm and a leg around him and was still humping against him. Why wasn't he stopping?

"Steve?" Nancy asked, leaning away and turning on the bedside lamp.

Oh, god! She really _ was _ topless!

Steve still wasn't stopping!

Jonathan tried to implore Nancy for forgiveness, really impressed with himself for how much he _ wasn't _staring at her boobs. Maybe the mortification at being humped by her boyfriend had something to do with his self control. (It wasn't doing much of anything for his boner situation, sadly.) "Why is he…?"

Brows furrowed, Nancy looked past Jonathan. "Is he _ asleep _?"

Asleep? Oh, god that made much more sense. "He has to be, right?"

"Steve?" Nancy tried asking, before raising her voice. "Steve!"

Steve kept moving and Jonathan had never felt more grateful for two thin pieces of cotton in his _ life _. 

"Steve!" Nancy cried again, reaching across Jonathan to flick Steve's ear. "Steve!"

Steve groaned, rolling away from Jonathan and onto his back. Jonathan rolled onto his back as well, if only to make his ass less of a target.

"C'mon, Nancy," Steve mumbled, pulling his other arm out from under Jonathan's back. "Was havin' a good dream." Steve smiled, stretching out his arms, and blinked open his eyes. "Oh, hey, Jonathan!"

~*~

It wasn't until she flicked Steve's ear again, earning herself a noise of indignance from him, that Nancy realized she was leaning over Jonathan. Topless.

Jonathan wasn't wearing a shirt either and in turns Nancy realized that _ she _ must have been the one to take his shirt off, thinking he was Steve, and that he actually had a really nice chest. _ Then _ Nancy realized that Steve was _ right there _, watching her.

When Nancy looked back at Steve, his eyes looked darker than they had the moment before. It reminded her of the way he'd looked at her last night, and she gasped.

Jonathan swallowed audibly.

Steve rolled a little closer and reached for Nancy, cupping her breast in his hand and brushing his thumb across her nipple. Nancy sighed and leaned into the caress. Jonathan groaned.

Nancy wasn't quite sure what Steve was up to when he cut his eyes over to Jonathan, raised an eyebrow, and then took his hand away from her breast. Before Nancy could get self conscious and lift the sheet to cover her chest, Steve raised Jonathan's hand with his own, placing it on Nancy's breast and cupping it to keep it there.

"Oh my god," Jonathan whispered, meeting Nancy's eyes and licking his lips. A thumb ghosted over her nipple and Nancy couldn't tell if it was Steve's again, or if it was Jonathan's. The thought that it could have been either of them made Nancy ache with want, the sudden wetness between her legs hot before it started rapidly cooling. "Oh, shit," she muttered, hoping like hell Steve wasn't playing some sort of sick game. "Shit, shit. Steve?"

Steve had his fingers on Jonathan's wrist and his eyes on Jonathan's face when he said, "You could kiss him, if you want."

Nancy had no idea if this was just Steve waking up horny or what, but he seemed fascinated by Jonathan's enjoyment of her body. Nancy looked at Jonathan and had to confront the truth -- she really, really did want to kiss Jonathan. 

So she did.

After the first tentative brush of her lips against Jonathan's didn't end in yelling or violence, she felt compelled to go back for more. With the second kiss, she licked along Jonathan's lower lip, tasting him.

Both boys groaned.

Strong arms wrapped around Nancy, pulling her close against Jonathan's chest. A third hand cupped and squeezed her butt cheek before tugging her leg, urging her to straddle Jonathan's hips.

Nancy wasn't inclined to argue. It felt like this closeness with Jonathan had been building for months. It felt like something good and right.

Nancy felt Steve move beside her and Jonathan, and for a second she worried that he'd left. She broke away from kissing Jonathan to look for Steve, only to find him behind her, kneeling between her legs. Kneeling between Jonathan's legs, too, actually.

Steve hugged Nancy from behind, kissing her neck and asking, "This okay?"

Jonathan's hands framed her face, tucking back her hair and Steve's lips were on her neck again. Nancy couldn't help but hiss, "Yessss…"

Steve pressed his dick against and then into Nancy, making her cry out and drop her head against Jonathan's shoulder.

"Holy shit," Jonathan breathed against Nancy's ear. "Oh my god." Nancy turned her head, kissing and then sucking on Jonathan's neck. He squirmed beneath her, crying out and bucking his hips up. His hard cock bumped against her clit, sending fireworks through her entire body.

"Ah!" Nancy cried out, angling her hips to better rub against Jonathan and cursing at the fact that he was still wearing underwear. The change in angle changed the places Steve hit as he thrust into her, which was an even better change. "Oh my god!"

"Ah, fuck," Jonathan groaned, grabbing Nancy's hips and pressing up against her hard, even as he threw his head back against the pillows. 

After a few more thrusts, Steve drove Nancy over the edge, making her cry out, "Ah! Ah! Ah!"

Nancy was just starting to come back down when Steve gave a low groan and held Nancy close, pulsing inside her.

She felt doubly grateful for the pills her mother had gotten her as Steve pulled out and sat down on the mattress next to where Nancy was still lying on top of Jonathan, letting him softly stroke her back.

With a happy sigh, Steve said, "Well, that was fun!"

Nancy giggled, mostly at the way Steve tended to characterize "fun", but also because she just felt so _ good _. Jonathan chuckled too, moving the arm he had closest to Steve. She looked over and saw Jonathan rub the backs of his fingers across Steve's knee, in some sort of wordless acknowledgement or thanks.

Steve leaned in, giving Nancy a kiss. Then, he got a curious look on his face. He turned his attention to Jonathan, looking at him for a few seconds before kissing him, too.

Nancy sucked in a surprised breath at the sight, and she heard Jonathan give a surprised, if muffled, exclamation.

Steve pulled back quickly, saying, "Sorry! Sorry. I guess I got a little carried away."

Jonathan sat up, using one arm to keep Nancy in his lap. He met her eyes for a second, then reached for Steve. Jonathan put his hand on Steve's cheek, leaving it there for a few seconds until Steve turned back to look at him. Jonathan checked in with Nancy again, who now that the shock had worn off figured it was only fair. She nodded.

Jonathan reached over, pulling Steve by his chin until they were locked in a soft kiss. When it ended, Jonathan smiled. Steve _ beamed _. 

He laughed.

He tackled both of them back against the bed with a whoop, tickling both of them until they were laughing right along with him.

When they were done laughing, Nancy ended up with her head on Steve's shoulder, sprawled out mostly on top of him. Jonathan laid against her back, his arm over her waist and hooked around Steve's opposite hip.

It had to be at least noon, but Nancy's parents weren't expecting her back until dinner and she felt another nap coming on.

~*~

** _December, 1983_ **

It had been a week since he'd had something _ almost _ like sex, and Jonathan was trying to enjoy Christmas Eve with his family. He _ was _trying. His thoughts kept returning to last Saturday morning and everything that had happened in Steve's bed.

Jonathan hadn't spent the night with either of them since. Nancy couldn't use her friend as a sleepover excuse again so soon. Steve said his parents were actually around and expecting to see him because of the holiday season. And between working on all his make-up homework to pass the semester and spending time with Will, Jonathan was tired enough to sleep fairly well on his own.

Fairly well.

Between wondering what it meant that he'd enjoyed kissing Steve and thinking about what he'd do if he ever got to touch Nancy again, Jonathan didn't sleep very well on Christmas Eve or on Christmas night.

He was still mostly asleep the day after Christmas when Joyce poked her head in and told him she was dropping Will off at the Wheelers' house and she'd be at work all day. Despite his fatigue, he definitely spotted the opportunity she presented to him.

Jonathan waited until he heard Joyce and Will leave, then he got out of bed and went to the phone. He had Steve's number written down, but he'd never used it until now.

A woman's voice answered. "Harrington residence." 

"Hi," he said, trying not to sound as stupid as he felt. "Can I talk to Steve?"

"It's 'may I', dear," she corrected him. "And I'll see if he's awake. Who shall I say is calling?"

Jonathan almost gave his name, but then he remembered the fight he and Steve had gotten into while Will was missing. He remembered the things Steve had said about his dad -- about his whole family. Sure, Steve had been pissed at the time, but he'd gotten the ideas from somewhere. After Lonnie had left, a lot of parents wouldn't let their kids hang out with him anymore. He bet the Harringtons were the type.

"Justin Abbott," Jonathan lied. "I'm on the basketball team with Steve."

"Okay, dear. Hold on a moment."

A few minutes later, Steve came on the line, his voice slurred with sleep. "Abbott? What's going on, man?"

"It's Jonathan," he said. "I figured your mom wouldn't want me talking to you."

"Oh. Hey," Steve said, his voice brightening up, like he was actually happy to hear from Jonathan.

"How've you been sleeping?"

"Not great," Steve replied with a little chuckle. "You?"

"Not great," Jonathan said, echoing Steve's words. "My brother and my mom are out of the house all day. Want to get Nancy and come over?"

"Hell, yes, I do." Steve took a sharp breath. "Maybe you'd better call Nancy. Get her to meet me at the corner. Her dad still hates me."

Laughing a little, Jonathan replied, "Yeah, okay. I will."

It was an easy enough call to make, and an hour later, Steve drove up to Jonathan’s house, Nancy with him.

By some sense of understanding, they all headed back to Jonathan's room and settled on his bed. Before Nancy sat down, she pulled a wrapped present out of her bookbag. "We got you something," she said with a smile, handing him the gift.

Jonathan took it, saying, "Thanks. I feel bad. I didn't get you guys anything."

Slinging an arm over Jonathan's shoulders, Steve said, "Don't worry about it, buddy. Just open it."

Figuring he could probably live with the imbalance, given how much money Steve's family had, Jonathan opened the present. It was a camera, just like the one Steve had broken six weeks ago. "Huh. Thanks."

"Sorry I didn't replace it earlier," Steve said, placing a loud, smacking kiss on Jonathan's cheek.

Nancy gave Steve an admonishing look. "_ I'm _sorry he broke your first one." Nancy leaned in and kissed Jonathan on the lips.

While Jonathan savored the sensation for a second after she pulled away, and then started opening the camera box, Steve said, "Hey. I thought I was defending your honor back then."

"You were showing off for Tommy and Carol and you know it," Nancy replied, pushing Steve back against the bed. "Besides, I don't remember you defending my honor last weekend, when another man was putting moves on me."

Still working on getting his camera out of the box, Jonathan piped up, "Hey, you definitely put _ your _ moves on _ me _, Nancy. Not the other way around."

"He's got you there," Steve said, laughing when Nancy squealed with indignation and clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Lies," she said simply, smiling over her shoulder at Jonathan. God, he wished he had this camera loaded and ready to go, because that was an expression he wanted to save and revisit as often as possible. "These are all lies," Nancy continued. "I am always proper and good, and ahh!" She screamed a little as Steve pulled a wrestling move on her, flipping them over and putting Nancy on the bed, on her back.

Realizing he was missing the fun, Jonathan put the camera on the desk and joined the others in bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! That's the end of this installment. If you want to be notified when I post the first chapter of part 2, "In the Dark", please subscribe to the series! Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me [on tumblr](https://pterawaters.tumblr.com/) or on [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/pterawaters). Don't be shy about leaving comments! I love them!


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